The Breakfast Club

Thank You To Jess For Explaining To Me The Correct Football Field Location.

Thank You To Owen From The When Write Is Wrong Website For Doing The Research And Making The Graphics To Confirm The Location.

Thank You To Actor John Kapalos Or "Carl The Janitor" From The Movie Also Confirming This To Be The Right Location For The Football Field.

We All Knew He Was The Eyes And Ears Of That Institution.

(0:03) Shermer High School / Maine North High School; 9511 Harrison Street, Des Plaines (Note: This Is Now An Illinois State Police Post)

(1:34) John Bender Walking Across The Football Field After Getting Claire's Earring / Maine North High School; 9511 Harrison Street, Des Plaines (Note: The View Is Looking West And A Little Northwest. The Field Was On The East Side Of The School, As Confirmed By An Old Aerial Map Shown At The Bottom Of This Page)

Check Out The Reasons Why I Am Confident The Football Field Was Located At Maine North. I Have Added Three Images Taken From The Bing Website To Help Explain What Is Seen In The Background.

The Purple And Red Arrows Identify Two Parts Of The East Side Of The Maine North Building, With The Purple One Showing What Looks To Be A Door. The Yellow Arrow Identifies Horizontal Openings On The Same Building. These Openings, On The Back Of The Northern Section Of The Building, Come Across As Darkened Windows In The Movie. In The First Bing Image, The Camera Is Facing West. In The Second And Third Bing Images, The Camera Is Facing North. The Yellow Rectangle In The Final Bing Image Shows Approximately Where The Football Field Was. The Blue Arrow Shows Where The Trees Are In The Background.

I Have Also Included An Old Aerial View Of The Property And A 1976 Maine North High School Yearbook Photo Of The Football Team. The Yearbook Photo, Which Shows The Bleachers And Press Box Seen In The Film, Was Provided By The Des Plaines Public Library.

The library was a set built in the gym so it's no longer there. The scenes from hallways are the ones that you can mostly recognize from inside the building. When Bender is bouncing the basketball that is the actual gym. I used to work for the State Police and got to wander around the whole building. I would doubt they would let you in to see the whole place but you can walk into the doors at the top of the steps into a lobby area, however, there isn't anything there that you would recognize. The ISP only take up a fraction of the building. A lot of it still looks like the school, it's not all offices.

Actually, no. I currently go to Maine South, and it was filmed at Maine South. You can distinguish them by the sound booth on top of the bleachers. That scene, and the Red Lockers/Red Doors scenes. The scene where they slide in front of the Red Doors, for example, was filmed in the C-Wing, right by Administration. Many of the same decorations are still there, as well as the wood paneling. Bender's locker was located in the C-Wing, right by the Library. His locker is actually the locker my brother uses now.

I was in high school when they filmed this movie none of it was Maine South. Sorry wishful thinking. Most of it Maine North certain scenes including football field was Glenbrook North John Huhhes alma Mater. Maine North football field was unavailable for the shoot, chicago soccer team practiced on it back then.

The field is Glenbrook North, as well as some of the interior shots in the hallways. The rest was filmed at Maine North High School. Maine North had closed a few years before, due to low enrollment. The building was also used by Parkside Sport and Fitness Center, as well as the Chicago Blitz of the defunct USFL. I know this because I went to Parkside summer sports camp there when they were filming the movie. The entire main gym with the library set was closed off for filming and we were only allowed to use the small gym where you see Judd Nelson playing basketball.

Hate to throw further confusion into this, but IMDB says that the football field scene was filmed at Deerfield High School--not sure why, since if accurate it appears that that's the only scene not filmed at Glenbrook or Maine, but that's what it says.

The football scene was filmed at Maine North, same as the movie. People do not know this, because the football field has since been torn down and replaced by townhouses. I was there the final two days of filming. I met Judd Nelson, Emilio and Ally Sheedy. I saw the shot being filmed. If you look at the scorebox, if clearly is NOT Glenbrook North. Also, on the left of the bleachers, you can see a white building, which is Maine North. Find someone with a Maine North yearbook and I'm sure you can compare for yourself.

Can't someone — a credible source — put this mystery to rest by providing an actual photo (or two) of the correct field/bleachers, as they looked around the time of filming? I'm so sick of all the conflicting online rumors. It was at Maine North. No, Glenbrook North. No, Maine South. No, Maine East. No, Niles West. No, Deerfield. Geez! Which is it? Everyone can't be right! Where's Judd Nelson when you need him?!

Countless websites claim otherwise, Chas, but I’m confident this is the true location of the football field.

For those who believe it was filmed at Glenbrook North because that school is mentioned in the credits: Glenbrook is probably mentioned because a) some interior scenes were filmed there (any chance Mr. Kapalos would like to confirm or deny this?) or b) that was Hughes’ alma mater, and the name of the street it’s on inspired him to use “Shermer” as the fictional town name. He was acknowledging the inspiration in the credits.

It makes sense that the ending was filmed at Maine North. The cast and crew was already there, and it’d be quite a procedure to load up all the equipment and go miles and miles away to film one relatively brief scene at a different school, especially when you consider that most high school football bleachers look so similar.

Back in the early ‘80s when the movie was filmed, the football field was east of the school. In the film, the camera was somewhere in the southeast corner of the field, looking northwest, toward the school and Harrison Street. (If you look to the left of the bleachers while watching the movie, what you’re seeing is the east side Maine North. What’s a tad confusing is that the areas marked with red and purple arrows on the images above are on the east side, while the area marked with a yellow arrow is on the back of the north side. Both sides are visible, however, when viewed at the northwestern angle used in the movie.) Judd Nelson was walking southeast on the field, near its south end zone. Inside the yellow/green box in your final image is a small white marker with orange trim. This is approximately where Judd Nelson pumped his first in that classic scene from an ‘80s classic.

Happy I could help clear up the confusion. I'm actually surprised nobody ever noticed the the scorebox from Glenbrook North looks nothing like the one in the movie, which is shown above. I'm also excited to learn about the site which has historic arials. Jess

I did this overlay comparison (http://imgur.com/bJBtsri). It appears that a large building, above the tennis courts, was also demolished. Does anyone know if that was the gym where they built the library? I had the opportunity to visit the Police Station recently, and got to walk down a few of the halls and in some of the stairwells. The stairwells are exactly the same. The halls look pretty similar, with the exception of the lockers. I was able to match up the floor and ceiling in the halls to the film. These elements are exactly the same and haven't changed. If you go to the front of the building, there is a downstairs area you can walk down to, without going into the building. If you peek in there, you can see the trophy cases you see in the credits, and you can see this strange shaped window you can see in the shot where they've just run all over and they have come to the gate that's closed. I bet if you got access to some of the hallways I didn't get to see, you could match up most of them from the film to the Police Station. What I didn't get to see is the "gym." I'm afraid from the arial photos I lined up, that the gym was destroyed. The people there seemed to think it was still standing, and was now offices. However, we do know that there was a small gym and a big gym. Small gym is where Bender is shooting hoops with Vernon, and the big gym is where the library was built. Can anybody provide any further information on the gym location? - like where it was/is specifically on the campus?

If the "large building" you're referring to is the thing you've marked with the purple arrow, that is not a large building, and it's still standing. It's a bit misleading when looking at it aerially, but that is actually the portion of the building marked with red and purple arrows in Chas' third Bing image above. In the Historic Aerials image you used on the overlay you created, the area marked in purple is located where it says "ONLY." The entire building we see in the Historic Aerial image is still standing in the current aerial shots, which means all the rooms still exist ... though they could have been remodeled, of course. So, in short, that small gym where Bender shot hoops is still inside that building ... somewhere. Boy, I'd love to roam the halls of that building, looking for the gym and other "Breakfast Club" locales!

That's awesome that you saw the gym on January 18th. I was on site last year, couldn't seem to find it and thought it must have been bulldozed. Shit, that is a historic place. Did you take any pictures? Was anything recognizable - I.E. did they keep the doors from the gym as part of the set? I always wondered if you could see the ceiling from the library in there, or if that was part of the set. When I was on site, a police officer let me in the main building and I was able to identify a few of the hallways. The stairwell is unchanged (from the running away from Vernon parts) and I noticed the style of concrete ceilings in the stairwell was matched in the Library set (or is it the roof of the gym?).

A sergeant walked us through the building for over half an hour. I took a couple of pictures in the hallways, their display case with the movie poster, and the gym through the window of the locked door. Seeing those staircases was unbelievable! The sergeant knew the room where the library was but unfortunately it was locked. Those doors didn't have any windows. The room is near an open area that looks like where employees would have lunch. It was all worth it though, especially when I got to stand on the former football field.

I used to live in the apartments by the school when I was a kid. Seeing that place everyday was kind creepy because it was big and scary. The school changed back and forth for quite awhile before settling as a police station. I remember there used to be a family down one of the roads that had a bunch of animals that they never cleaned up after. The place was awful LOL. Despite that, I had lots of great memories in those apartments! My favorite courtyard was the one with the bridge in it.

I READ A "RUMER' A FEW YEARS BACK SOME ON THE INTERNET HERD A RUMER THAY WERE THINKING ABOUT DOING A BREAKFAST-CLUB 2 (SEQUAL) I HAVENT HERD ANYTHING ELSE ? HUGE BREAKFAST CLUB FAN 80'S (PERFECTION) I LAUGHED SO HARD AT THAT MOVIE I WAS CRYING WHEN I WAS IN DETETION IN MY HIGH SCHOOL IN ST.LOUIS I DO REMENBER I WAS SITTING AT A LONG TABLE & TO THE LEFT WAS 1 OF THE SCHOOL SURCURITY GURDS TELLING ME I WASNT ALOWED TO TALK I WAS SO PISSED OFF AT HIM LOL........GOOD MEMORIES

Finding it fascinating that small details, like which football field was used for filming that final scene, can generate such disagreement. Though I remember this movie like it was released yesterday, I'm realizing how truly long ago that was. *YIKES* Nonetheless, thank you all. I've thoroughly enjoyed reading your comments. And, of course, thank you Chas for the site! It's fabulous!

I visited Maine North over the Labor Day weekend and was able to take some shots from the former field was (according to the Bing images on this site). Here is one which looks to confirm the final shot was indeed at Main North. http://s28.postimg.org/ruq5nli5p/DSC01625_2.jpg

The school used was Maine North. My father worked for Maine Township school district 207 at the time and says that yes, the interior shots were filmed at the closed Maine North high school- a library set was constructed in the gymnasium as others have said, and the lockers were actually constructed in the basemen of Maine North.

Not 100% sure about the football field because I have heard compelling arguments for both MN and GBN, but considering that this was filmed going on 30 years ago, you can't prove anything solely on how things look now). Maine North had already been closed for awhile at the time of filming, and with the exception of the front shots of the school, the rest of the set was made up or revised for the sake of the movie. Things like fences/flags/scoreboards/goalposts/blechers, etc., could have easily been constructed or removed for filming. I wish my father was alive, so I could ask him for certain.

I went to maine north for 4 yrs and I can tell you this:1. The library in the movie is definitely a set they built, similar looking to the actual library. However, the scene where judd nelson bounds down the staircase and says "I forgot my pencil" , that staircase is in the actual library.2. The scene at the end when they are walking down the front steps, the scene just before they are walking down the hall in the lower level...so they would not be walking down those front steps, they would be walking up from the lower level stairs in the front of the school.3. That is Maine North's football field. I spent many freezing days and nights in my little bare legged pompon uniform performing on that field. If you are familiar with the highschools in the area, you'd know that maine north was the smallest...that was the rinkydinkiest football field....

I believe the school became a BD school in the mid to late 80's. For which my father was the dean at the time. He was there while they were filming. I remember him telling me they had converted the gym into the library and the crew didn't do the best job cleaning up afterwards. I remember him being annoyed about that. I stopped by to visit him their back than and got to walk around the halls and see the gym Bender was playing basketball in.I remember being surprised at how small the lockers actually were. It was all quite surreal after watching the movie countless times in jr. High. I do recall you can clearly see 294 from there.

A commenter said above: "The library in the movie is definitely a set they built, similar looking to the actual library. " Does this mean the "actual library" could still be on premises and could possibly still be viewable? Imagine, somewhere in that building could be a pretty close match to the on screen set, still standing after all these years.

I graduated from me North High School and my wife graduated from Glenbrook North High School and we both know what our football fields looked like and it was definitely filmed at Main North for the final scene